by Keeland, Vi
“Let me ask you something—do you have a type?”
“In men?”
I nodded. “Either in looks or personality?”
“I do. I tend to be attracted to losers.”
I grinned. “No, really.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not joking. I’m attracted to the artsy type—painters, sculptors, writers—most of whom are unemployed half the time.”
“What attracts you to them?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I love that they wear their heart on their sleeves. Artist types tend to be in touch with their emotions and care about things I care about, like the environment and social justice. I find a man who’s passionate about things that don’t necessarily make him money very sexy.”
“What about physically?”
“You’ve met guys I’ve dated. They’re usually thin with a hippy kind of earthy look—sort of like you’re not quite sure if they might be homeless or not.” She looked me up and down. “Basically the opposite of you, pretty boy. But why are you asking me this?”
“I’m trying to figure out how a woman could date me and then a total asshole.”
She smirked. “Aren’t those the same thing?”
I wadded up a piece of paper from my desk and threw it at her.
She laughed and caught it. “What’s going on with you? Spill the beans, Decker.”
I sighed. “Do you remember me telling you about Autumn?”
“Sure. The woman you spent an entire celibate weekend with and fell for because she didn’t give it up and dumped you before you could dump her?”
I rolled my eyes. She sounded like Trent. “That’s not why I liked her. But whatever—I don’t have time to debate it. I still need to bill twelve more hours today, and there’s only six hours left. Anyway, I ran into her.”
“Oh, wow. How’d that go?”
I frowned. “She told me she hadn’t left me her number because she wasn’t looking for more than we had.”
“Ouch.”
I shook my head. “But our chemistry is still there.”
“Sounds like she’s just not into a relationship, then.”
“That’s the thing. She’s seeing someone now.”
“Maybe you caught her when she was going through something.”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Did you get her number anyway?”
I held up the business card still in my hand. “She’s the social worker on a pro bono case for a minor who was arrested. So she gave it to me for business, not exactly because she wants me to take her out.”
“Okay… I’m still lost on where we started this conversation. Is Autumn the woman who’s dating the asshole?”
I nodded.
“You met him? He was with her?”
“No, he wasn’t with her. But I’ve definitely met him.” I looked her straight in the eyes. “She’s dating Blake Dickson.”
Juliette’s eyes narrowed. “The Blake Dickson? Like, as in one of the partners whose vote you need to make partner?”
I blew out a deep breath. “One and the same.”
***
That night, I decided to take a detour on my way home from work. I was a little overdressed for the neighborhood I’d be going to, so I removed my tie and shoved it into my pocket—not that it was going to make me stand out any less as I roamed the streets after I got off the subway.
The looks I got as I walked down the sidewalk were pretty amusing—half the people eyed me like they were considering stealing my wallet, and the other half scattered like cockroaches, assuming the guy in the dark suit was probably a narc.
I found Dario exactly where I’d left him eleven years ago: sitting on his stoop four doors down from where I’d once lived. It was almost eleven o’clock at night, but you wouldn’t know it from all the people hanging around.
“Oh, shit.” He stood and smiled. “What the hell are you wearing? Did you lose a bet?”
We shook hands in a way no one around the office ever did—a series of shakes and bumps ending in a one-shoulder guy hug.
“This is how men who don’t live in the same building as their mothers dress, shit for brains.”
He shook his head. I was just busting chops, and he knew it. Dario had never left because his mother refused to leave the apartment she’d been in for more than forty years. She was confined to a wheelchair, and he would always stick close to take care of her.
He looked around at his buddies, most of whom I’d never seen before. “Anyone got a hankie? My boy here probably doesn’t want to sit on a dirty stoop.”
I laughed. “I don’t. So whadda you say we take a walk around the block?”
He nodded and told his buddies he’d be back, that he needed to walk me back to the train so I wouldn’t get mugged.
Once we were out of earshot, I said, “How’s Rosanne doing?”
“Mom’s doing alright. You remember old man Stimpson?”
“Of course. He decapitated that big snowman we spent hours building after that crazy snowstorm we had when we were seven or eight.”
Dario smirked. “That’s right. I pretended my mom sent me down to borrow sugar or something and stole his corncob pipe. How can you make a snowman without a pipe?”
I laughed. “What about Stimpson? Something happen to him?”
“Nah. He’s still kicking around. But he comes and spends time with my mom a few times a week. His old lady died a few years back. Mom says he’s her special friend.”
“No shit? Your mom is stooping Stimpson?”
Dario punched me. “You don’t want me to mess up that suit, do you?”
I chuckled. “Good for Rosanne. I’m glad she’s happy. But listen, I came by to get some information that might help out a client of mine. He’s twelve and reminds me a lot of the two of us at his age.”
“Poor little bastard…”
“Yeah, no shit.” I smiled. “Any chance you know a guy they call Sugar?”
“Sure. He’s a pharma over on Lyme Street.”
Pharma was short for pharmacist, which meant he was a local drug dealer. I knew that much already since Storm had admitted the truth about their fight.
“Know anything else about him?”
“I know he used to rough up his old lady. She’s got three older brothers, and they paid him a little visit. The next day both his arms were in casts from shoulder to wrist.”
I was glad he was an asshole and not a friend of Dario’s. “Who’s he work for?”
“I’m assuming what we’re talking about here is between us? I don’t mind if you jam him up, but I don’t want my name getting out as no snitch.”
“Of course not. I might dress like one, but I’m not a total douchebag.”
Dario snickered. “Sugar works for Eddie D., who works for the Big Man.”
Excellent—a line of assholes. I nodded. “Thanks for the info.”
My oldest friend and I walked around the block a few more times. He caught me up on the neighborhood. Back in the day, I couldn’t wait to get out of this place, yet there was something comforting about being back. Maybe it was the trust I had in some of my old buddies, and they had in me. Years could pass, but we’d been through too much shit together for that bond to ever break.
When we rounded our way back to Dario’s porch for the fourth time, we stopped. “Have you heard from Linda?” he asked.
My jaw tensed at the mention of my mother. “Not in a while. She must’ve found some other sucker to give her money.”
Dario nodded. “I hear you. Gonna come up and hang out for a while?”
“Nah. Another time. I gotta be back at the office at the crack of dawn.”
We shook, and my friend punched me lightly on my arm. “Don’t take three years before you stop by again.”
“I won’t. Take care, Dario, and tell your mom I said hello.”
***
The next day I put a call in to the ADA assigned to Storm’s case. I learn
ed he was out for the rest of the week, so it would be a while before I’d be able to talk to him and have an excuse to call Autumn. Yet I kept eyeing her business card on my desk. Right before I headed out to lunch, I took the card and tossed it into my drawer. Maybe removing her name from plain sight would help me stop thinking about her so much.
I met Trent and Juliette in a conference room to have lunch. We’d ordered in Chinese from the place down the block.
“So, I have gossip,” Juliette said as we dug in.
“If you’re going to force us to listen to dumb stories again, this time they’d better be about actual people,” I said, opening my food carton.
Last time we’d had lunch, Juliette had told us some elaborate story about a woman dating a dozen guys. I’d been getting into it until I realized the people she was talking about weren’t actual friends of hers. She’d been reciting crap from the last few episodes of The Bachelor.
“Oh, this is about actual people. Though, I know you secretly want to know what happened to Kayla when she took Jeff home for her hometown visit and had to tell him she has a kid. But I’ll save that for after.”
“Gee, thanks,” I grumbled.
“Be nice, or I won’t tell you that I ran into my friend Trina earlier today in the ladies’ room.”
“Which one is Trina again?” Trent asked.
Juliette grinned and looked in my direction, even though I hadn’t asked the question. “She’s Blake Dickson’s assistant.”
Now that got my attention. “What did she have to say?”
“I asked her how her grumpy boss was doing. She said he’d been more tolerable lately.”
My fork froze with a shrimp halfway to my mouth. “I don’t want to know what’s making him more tolerable.”
She scrunched up her face. “Ewww. I didn’t go into that kind of detail. But she said he’s been seeing someone new. I thought you might want to know what the deal is between them.”
“The deal between who?” Trent asked.
I forgot I hadn’t yet told him about my run-in with Autumn. “I’ll catch you up in a minute,” I said. I lifted my chin to Juliette. “Go on.”
“Well, they’ve only been dating about a month and a half, and they only see each other once a week, that she knows of. Not surprisingly, The Dick makes his assistant make his dinner reservations.” Juliette shook her head. “She said Autumn’s only ever called the office once, when she was returning Dickson’s call. So things don’t sound too serious.”
Trent’s forehead wrinkled. “Autumn? The woman who ghosted you?”
I filled him in on what had transpired since the call I’d gotten when we were out to dinner. He leaned back in his chair.
“Shit. So what are you going to do?”
“Considering I need Dickson’s vote?” I shrugged. “Nothing.”
Trent and Juliette looked at each other. Some unspoken communication passed between them, and they both cracked up.
“What the hell is so funny?”
“You,” Juliette snorted. “You say it as if you actually believe it.”
“Believe what?”
“That you can control going after something you want.”
CHAPTER 6
* * *
Donovan
When Saturday night arrived, I was looking forward to doing absolutely damn nothing—maybe watch whatever new action flick was currently streaming, water my plants, kick my feet up on my coffee table, and suck back a cold beer or two. I deserved a reward. I’d managed to catch up on my billable hours, and I hadn’t broken down and called a certain woman whose name I would not be thinking about tonight—especially when I climbed into bed later. Over the last few days, I’d managed to talk myself down off the cliff I’d been standing on. I’d worked seven long years to get where I was today, and I was not going to let a woman fuck that up, especially not one who had no interest in me.
Nope. I was not interested in Autumn Wilde.
Not in the least.
I picked up the spray bottle on my kitchen counter and walked over to the first of more than a dozen plants scattered around my apartment.
“She’s not my type anyway.”
Spray. Spray.
As if to challenge that statement, my brain conjured up a memory of Autumn from our weekend together—long legs, creamy skin, gorgeous, deep red hair, tiny waist, and a pretty full ass for a little thing…
“Fine,” I grumbled. “So maybe she’s sort of my type—physically, anyway. But she’s definitely more work than I could handle.”
Spray. Spray.
Though…when I looked back at the weekend we’d spent together, which I’d definitely done on a few hundred occasions, work wasn’t exactly how I’d describe it. Just the opposite. Autumn and I had been holed up here in my apartment for three full days, and it was probably the most effortless good time I’d had in…maybe forever. We’d talked until the sun came up and spent the days renting movies, fooling around a bit, laughing, and falling asleep snuggled on the couch. I’d even done her damn laundry while she’d slept.
I shook my head and moved on to the next plant.
“Fine.”
Spray. Spray.
“But what the hell do you expect me to do? She’s not interested. Plus, she’s dating my boss. So does it even matter if she’s a walking wet dream who could make me smile for an entire weekend without having sex? Or that I can still smell her perfume right now even though I haven’t been near her in two days? Or that I can remember the taste of her from every kiss we’ve shared?”
Spray. Spray.
“I’ll tell you the answer. No. It doesn’t fucking matter.”
Even if there were a hundred reasons I couldn’t get her out of my mind, she was dating my boss. That alone had to tip the scale to the stay-the-hell-away side, clearly outweighing all the reasons to call her. I just needed to get my mind off of her for a while. That’s all.
So I finished watering my plants in silence, got a cold beer from the fridge, and sat down on the couch to scroll through the movie choices on Netflix. But as I watched the preview for some movie that seemed like it should’ve been titled Ocean’s Nine Hundred and Ninety or Whatever, my cell vibrated in my pocket. I briefly considered ignoring it, but the workaholic in me couldn’t let it go to voicemail. So I dug it out and swiped to answer a number I didn’t recognize as I brought my beer to my lips. “Donovan Decker.”
“Hi, ummm… It’s Autumn. I’m sorry to bother you.”
I immediately sat up and planted the beer on the coffee table. Something was wrong. I could hear the stress in her voice. “What happened?”
“It’s Storm. He ran away.”
I raked a hand through my hair. Shit. One of the terms of his release was that he had to remain under the direct care and control of Social Services. “How long has he been gone?”
“Since about four o’clock this afternoon. Today is his birthday. The last time he spoke to his mother, she promised she’d visit him on his birthday. She never showed up. Visiting hours ended at 3:30, and when the residence manager went to check on him, she found a broken window and Augustus was gone. They know they’re required to call the Probation Department if anything like this happens, but I’m friends with Lita, the manager there, so she called me first. I asked her if I could call it in… But that was five hours ago, and I never did. I didn’t know who else to call. Can I get him in more trouble if I continue to hold off on calling?”
“You can get yourself in trouble. As his social worker, you have a legal duty to act.”
“I don’t care about that, but…” She paused, and I heard a knock in the background. “I’m sorry. Can you hang on a second?”
“Yeah.”
I listened to muffled voices. The man’s voice got loud, and I thought he said, “It’s just five damn dollars.” The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
“Autumn?” I yelled into the phone.
She came back on after a few seconds. “Sorry—wher
e was I?”
“Forget where you were with your story. Where are you right now?”
“I’m in a parking lot. I think I’m on Delaney Street or maybe it was Delancey. I don’t remember what I turned on.”
I walked to the closet to get my shoes. “You’re in Storm’s neighborhood?”
“Yeah. I’ve been looking for him the last few hours.”
“Are you in a car?”
“Yes.”
“Did someone just knock on your window and ask for money?”
“Yeah. I pulled into an empty lot to call you, and I didn’t notice anyone. I think maybe some homeless people might be living here.”
I shook my head as I grabbed my keys and wallet from the counter. “If you’re on Delaney, you’re about eight blocks from the seventy-fifth precinct, where he was held the other night. It’s on the corner of Sutter and Essex. Punch that into your GPS and go. I’ll meet you in the parking lot of the station. Don’t roll down your window to answer anyone, and keep your doors locked.”
“Are we going to ask the police for help finding Storm?”
“Something like that. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Once you get to the police station, just sit in your car. Don’t go in without me.”
“Okay.”
***
Autumn jumped when I knocked on her window. She looked relieved when she realized it was me, and she pressed the button to roll it down.
“Do you mind if we take your car?” I said.
“No, that’s fine. But where are we going?”
“To find Storm.”
“I thought we were going to ask the police for help?”
“No, this was just the safest place I knew of to put you until I could get here.”
“Oh…”
I walked around the car and got into the passenger seat. Autumn looked around the parking lot. “Is that your car over there?” She pointed.
